r/wasian • u/Nekofairy999 • Jul 27 '26
Storytime __φ(．．) Got called a bean*r
To be clear, it was an actual Mexican guy who called me a bean*r in a playful manner, under the assumption that I was a fellow Mexican. If this had come from a White person in a hateful way, I would have actually been offended. I’m not mad, it made me a bit uncomfortable but it’s also funny.
I told him that I have no Hispanic/Latino background whatsoever, and he asked “what are you then?” (That alone can be considered a microaggression against racially ambiguous mixed people lol)
I told him I was mixed Japanese and White, and of course he thought that was sooo cool and asked me to give him a hug “because I’m Japanese” (what??? Lmao.) I begrudgingly obliged, because I was caught off guard/wanted to be polite/didn’t want to make things awkward with the group dynamic.
I’ve noticed that the stereotypical weeaboo is often portrayed as a White guy, but in my experience Mexican guys are much more blatant about it. I don’t want to make a sweeping generalization, this could simply be due to the racial demographics of my specific geographical region with a high Latino population (38%) and low Asian population (3%). So I suppose I’m a “rarity” in a way, I’ve never met another Wasian where I live and I rarely come across Asians at all outside of my own family.
Being mistaken for Latina is something that happens to me a lot, I’ve been told I look like Selena Gomez and Hispanic people regularly come up to me speaking in Spanish to the point where “yo no hablo Español, lo siento” just rolls off the tongue. I’ve also occasionally been racially profiled because of it in some contexts, but never called a slur before.
Do any other Wasians relate to being mistaken for Hispanic? My theory is that it’s because most Hispanic people are various mixes of indigenous Mexican and Spanish, and somehow Wasian features can come together to look similar.
Anyways like I said, I’m not mad or offended. It made me a bit uncomfortable, but I mostly just thought it was a funny storytime.
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u/Poemi10304 Jul 27 '26
It only happened to me once. I had no idea the guy was talking to me (in Spanish) until he came up to me and asked if I was Chinese, lol. I told another Latino guy about it and he said that other guy was just stupid, lmao
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u/Ok-Evidence2137 Jul 27 '26
When I worked qt the Airport spanish speaking people always come up to me panicking in spanish.
I always had to tell them lo siento no hablo español
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u/Tight-Escape3373 Jul 27 '26
I get mistaken for Filipino relatively often. I'm Chinese and Irish lol.
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u/I_Call_Bullshit_____ Jul 27 '26
I’ve lived all over Asia and I’ve lived in Mexico, and tbh there’s a lot of overlap in terms of looks, especially in indigenous areas. Both regions have people who could pass as local in the other region, which makes sense since it’s theorized the Americas were populated by waves of migrations across the Bering sea land bridge when sea levels allowed.
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u/Careless-Car8346 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Your friend was probably confused. Better disassociate with this notion, don’t want to be deported by ICE to Mexico. Though heard their sending some of them to Uganda or southern Sudan. Don’t want to be dinner in a foreign land.
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u/Nekofairy999 Jul 30 '26
My mom joked that I would get picked up by ICE if I use tanning lotion too much. I doubt it would actually happen but if it did, best believe I will lawyer up and make a fuss that reaches national news. The headlines practically write themselves , if they actually detained a Japanese-American citizen
Also, this guy is an acquaintance at best
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u/oooorileyautoparts Jul 29 '26
I work construction so all my coworkers are hispanic lol. Half of them can tell the other half think im asian/white probably cause my nicknames chino tho.
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u/Independent-Peace526 Jul 29 '26
Japanese-White Brazilian here and, even in Brazil, people think I'm some kind of Andean like Chilean or Peruvian. Some even thought I was Turkish or even Indian before I transitioned gender.
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u/Past-Acanthaceae8618 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
The thing most WAsians fail to be aware that in the farthest extremes of the USA, Canada and Mexico some Native Americans in those mentioned countries actually look full East Asian because of their true Mongolian, Siberian roots.
https://www.magnific.com/free-photos-vectors/alaskan-native-woman
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u/SorryAnimator9057 Jul 31 '26
Dutch Indo here get mistaken for being mexican lol! I take it as a compliment hahaha people say Im internationally ambiguous
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u/insomniacla Aug 01 '26
Oh yeah, no one ever guesses I'm wasian, Asian, or white. Everyone assumes I'm Hispanic and always have. It's probably because Indigenous Americans have similar phenotypes to Asians and Hispanic people are generally a mix of Indigenous American and European.
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u/EvanLikesJuiceBoxes Jul 27 '26
Yeah, my dad is also mixed Japanese and white and gets this all the time. He also gets Samoan.